by Tamara White
She bows and I fight not to fidget, choosing instead to move closer to the podium. Each step I take toward Britt is purposeful and confident, refusing to give away any of my unease. Malcolm takes a step back, as if trying to avoid my touch, but I just stride past, ignoring him for the moment.
I direct my gaze to the two black-clad people holding her. The other four are fanned about behind Britt as if they think she might run. “Let her go so she can drink the potion.”
“Sorry, miss. We can’t do that.”
I cock my head, looking them over carefully. “Are you saying you’re too weak to stop her if she were to try something? Because if that is truly the case, why are you even up here?”
I can’t see their faces through the ski masks, but I see the small stain of pink just below the eye holes. I watch in satisfaction as they let go of Britt, their gazes swinging warily to Malcolm as they do.
I just grin and hand the potion to Britt, who downs it in one gulp. I stare as Malcolm sweats on the stage, waiting for the reveal. It was probably a stupid move to let him know I’m telepathic, but he needed to be put in his place and learn that I won’t put up with these bullshit games.
After a minute, I look at my best friend. Her blue eyes are filled with fear and I just hope I can take that look away soon. “Did you cast a spell on Heather to make her try to kill me?”
“No,” she whispers solemnly. I nod, feeling sad my friend is feeling so meek right now.
“Have you ever spelled anyone to hurt me, or to kill me?”
She smiles at me softly, a little more of her usual confidence returning. “No, I could never do that. You’re my best friend, Mer. I would die before letting anyone hurt you.”
I turn to Heather with a glare. “Your turn.” I take three strides to her and grip her by the hair as I flip the cork on the second bottle. I start to pour the liquid into her mouth, but then hesitate when it’s about half gone. Something tells me I need to save the rest.
Heather swallows the potion because she has no choice, my grip on her hair holding her in place. It’s either swallow it voluntarily or choke. Once she’s finished swallowing, I step back and stare down at her. “Were you spelled to kill me?”
She grits her teeth, as if by sheer will alone she can remain quiet, but then the words tumble out. “Yes, I was spelled to kill you.” She pants from the effort of keeping her mouth shut, her hands clenched into fists at her knees and she shifts her gaze to the ground.
“And who was the witch who spelled you?”
She gazes up at me defiantly before she jerks her head in Malcolm’s direction. “He did. Malcolm spelled me to kill you, and then I was supposed to kill each of your soul-ties.”
Malcolm fakes shock, holding a hand over his heart and stumbling back a step as if he can’t quite believe what he’s hearing. “This is preposterous!” he scoffs, looking around at everyone as if hoping someone will rise up and defend him, like I did for Britt.
My gaze locks on Malcolm and I hold up the vial with the remaining potion. “Well, if you really think the potion was ineffective and that both Britt and Heather are lying, then there’s no harm in having you drink the rest of this, is there?”
He narrows his eyes at me and in a blink of an eye, he disappears. A moment later, he appears behind Britt, clasping his hand around her throat. Then he disappears once more, but this time, he takes my best friend with him.
Seven
What Next?
Emerald
After Britt and Malcolm disappear, everything erupts into pure chaos with people running around in a panic. No one seems to know what to do, but I’m not going to stay here while everyone tries to figure that out, not when I could be searching for her.
“Emerald, the limo is pulling up now. Go with the others, and I’ll see you back at the coven,” Talon orders, as he guides me toward the area we arrived in. I can see that others have gotten the same idea, hurrying to leave.
When we get to the limo, I turn on him, his words from earlier finally sinking in. “What do you mean, ‘go with the others?’ You’re coming too, right?”
He looks at me with guilt-ridden eyes and I know then he’s not coming back with us. “I’m sorry, Emerald, I can’t. There’s something else I have to take care of first.”
“Something more important than this?” I challenge, my voice shrill with disbelief. My best friend was just kidnapped in front of us. Is that not reason enough to drop everything to help?
“Please, trust me on this. I promise if this could wait, I would absolutely be going with you. Just call me when you know more, okay? I’ll be back soon, I promise.”
He doesn’t give me a chance to reply, kissing me fiercely as if it’s the last kiss we’ll ever share. I can’t help this overwhelming feeling that I shouldn’t let him go. That if I do, I’ll lose him forever.
He breaks the kiss and pulls me closer, hugging me tightly. “I love you, Emerald,” he whispers against my head before letting go, and disappearing into the crowd of people rushing to get out of here. With Malcolm’s disappearance and Macy’s not long afterward, the force field went down. When I asked why it failed, my mother explained that Malcolm and Macy were the two people who were maintaining it. So without them and their magic, it fell. And the longer it’s down, the more people grow concerned that humans might stumble upon us.
My parents, with help from my dad, are trying to organize everyone, but panic is a hard thing to overcome. No one suspected Malcolm could be involved in such a horrible thing. Now, they’ve learned the truth, and no one knows quite what to do.
“Em, get in the car so we can go,” Dev calls from inside the limo. I open the door, feeling a little overwhelmed by what just happened with Talon. His kiss and the whispered ‘I love you’ felt very final to me, and I’m scared to think of what it might mean.
I climb into the limo, but before I’m settled, Dev grabs me and pulls me onto his lap, slamming the door shut after. As soon as the door closes, the limo takes off and I look up, noticing everyone in the car. I was only expecting to see Dev and Nik, but Blaine, Meron, Kellan, and Torie are all squeezed inside as well, their faces distraught at the loss of their wife.
I shake myself out of this Talon funk. I’ll deal with him once this stuff is sorted out with Britt. We need to get her back, and as soon as possible, because if Dastian is truly possessing Malcolm, then who knows how long we’ve got?
I clap my hands together, getting everyone’s attention. “Right, what are we doing first to get Britt back? We’re not just going back to the coven, are we?”
Meron frowns at me, his eyes empty. “We can’t do anything. There’s no way to find her. Since we’re so closely bonded, our shared blood won’t be enough to pinpoint her location and none of us have blood oathed with her blood, so we can’t find her that way either. It’s hopeless.”
“You blood oathed with her when she blood oathed you guys to me, didn’t you?”
Blaine shakes his head sadly. “No, Britt only used your blood and ours in the oath, otherwise you’d be feeling some attraction to her too, which I have yet to witness. So Meron’s right, it’s hopeless. We just have to wait for Malcolm to contact us with his demands, because you can be sure there’s something he wants. He wouldn’t have taken her when he could just have escaped on his own otherwise.”
I nod slowly, and think back to a summer night several years ago. My eyes grow wide. “What if on the last night of Britt staying with my pack, we cut our pinkies and rubbed the blood together, swearing to always find each other again? Would that count as a blood oath strong enough to locate her?”
Kellan looks at me, his eyes filled with hope. “Are you sure your blood mixed?”
I nod, smiling. “I’m sure,” I tell them. They all look at me with renewed hope and I decide to try again. “Now, what are we going to do? What is the plan to track Britt down and get her back?”
Nik speaks up from beside me. “Well, since the ride back to the coven is going to
take an hour or two, why don’t we all go back to my place instead? We’ll have time to plan during the day and my house has enough supplies for any spells we may need.”
Blaine nods enthusiastically. “Yeah, I’ve been there before, and your supply pantry is pretty extensive. And if by chance you don’t have something we need, one of us can just run out and grab it if the sun’s still up.”
Nik nods before getting up from his seat, and going over to whisper to the driver through the half opened partition. Once that’s sorted, he comes back to sit by my side. I ask him and Dev, “Do you two know why Talon didn’t come with us?”
I try to keep the hurt from my voice, but they must hear it because they both try to comfort me. Nik cups my cheek, making me look into his eyes. “He has to see his maker. She asked him and when he said no, she made it a demand, something he couldn’t deny. He will be back when he has finished with whatever task she has for him.”
“Oh, I guess I didn’t think about him having a maker. I mean, I know Talon turned you two, but I didn’t think his maker was still alive.”
Dev nestles his head into the crook of my neck, his arm wrapped around my waist as he nibbles along my shoulder. He pauses to answer, “His maker is a real bitch and likes to make Talon do all her dirty work when she’s in the States. We suspected she would summon him before she left, and since she made it a demand, he couldn’t refuse her without it becoming excruciatingly painful.”
Oh. I guess that makes sense then. He couldn’t deny her because it would have hurt him to do so, and I don’t want him to suffer like that anyway. I just hope whatever she makes him do isn’t too dangerous.
The limo stops and Nik opens his door. He climbs out, holding out his hand for me to take. I slip my hand into his and he helps me out of the limo. Dev follows after me, as do Britt’s husbands, though I’m too distracted by the building before me to pay them much notice.
A huge, ranch style house stands before me, and I fight not to swoon at the sight. This is literally my dream house. It has a beautiful wraparound porch with white beams and pale green siding.
It’s not until Nik waves his hand in front of my face that I realize he’s been talking to me. “Sorry, what did you say?” I blush as he looks at me with a wry smile.
“I asked if you wanted to come inside, rather than just stand out here and stare.”
“Oh yeah, sure,” I murmur, trying to take it all in as we go inside. Despite the gravity of the situation, Nik’s house has captivated me and I don’t even try to hide how amazed I am. I walk through the front door, my feet echoing on the dark hardwood floors. My gaze is immediately drawn to the high ceiling, which I wasn’t expecting, but looks quite amazing.
I feel Nik’s hand on the bottom of my back as he leads me down the hallway toward the back of the house. It opens up into a wide-open space containing both the living room and kitchen. I stare at the kitchen in awe and feel like Nik must have somehow crept into my dreams to make this house exactly how I wanted it. The stove has gas burners, there’s a bright shiny dishwasher and two ovens, as well as plenty of room for baking.
“Em, are you having a stroke?” Dev asks. I turn to see Dev, Blaine, Meron, Kellan, and Torie all watching me with bemused expressions from where they’re seated on the large L-shaped sofa.
“Um, no. Sorry, this is just a little bit hard to process. This house is exactly like the house I once dreamed of owning if I ever left the pack. It just really threw me for a loop.”
“Well, I’m glad you like it, but can we focus on this first?” Nik requests. “We’re going to need to sleep in a few hours and I’d rather we have all the finer details out of the way first. On top of that, I have to call your parents and let them know where we are, so they don’t think anything bad has happened to you.”
“Sorry, I’ll try to keep my amazement to myself until we have a game plan in place.” I walk out of the kitchen and take a seat beside Kellan on the last spare seat of the couch, leaving just enough room for Nik to squeeze in beside me.
Blaine looks around the room, gazing at each of us in turn. I was hoping to stay quiet for this, but he doesn’t give me the chance. “Emerald, you asked me about purple eyes tonight.”
I freeze as Kellan, Torie, and Meron turn to look at me with horror-filled expressions. I clear my throat and meet Blaine’s intense gaze. “Yes, I did.”
“Why did you ask me that?”
I look around at each of the guys, knowing I have to tell them, but I’m worried about their reactions. “Promise me none of you will leave and try to hunt Britt down? We need you to perform the tracking spell, not to go off half-cocked.”
They all look at me like I’m nuts before agreeing. I sigh heavily and then begin telling them everything that happened, from the moment time seemed to stop with Malcolm to the flare of his purple eyes and my suspicions about what that meant.
After I finish, I hold my breath. I can tell before it happens that they’re about to leave. Dev and Nik are the only ones to remain seated, the other guys rushing to get out of here. I jump to my feet, calling to the magic inside me.
“No!” I shout, feeling my magic coil around them and they freeze in place.
Cool. I had no idea if that would work or not.
Kellan looks at me with angry eyes while Torie tries to fight my magic. Blaine and Meron, on the other hand, just glare at me, knowing there’s no use fighting my magic. I may be unschooled on exactly what to do, but my magical ability is really strong.
“Let us go,” Kellan growls, his voice vibrating with his anger.
I feel Nik and Dev move behind me, offering me their support as I try to use logic to get through to the four guys before me. “I can’t let you go, because if I do, you’re going to just storm out of here in a mindless rage. But you have no idea where Britt is, or how to find Malcolm, or Dastian possessing Malcolm, which seems to be the case. You need to stay here to help us locate her first.”
“We can track Dastian,” Meron insists, but I see the sliver of doubt in his eyes.
“Really?” I put my hands on my hips skeptically. “Because until I told you what I saw, you all thought he was well and truly gone. How can you track him if you didn’t even know he was under your noses this whole time?”
They remain silent and I can see my words are starting to break through their rage. “Besides, we need to be smart about this. If Dastian is really alive inside of Malcolm, then we may have a way to save Britt after all. She said the only way to break the curse was with Dastian’s blood, but what if we used Malcolm’s blood while he was possessed with Dastian’s spirit? Would that work in breaking her curse?”
The realization clicks with all of them, and I relax my magic, confident that they won’t rush out of here now that they realize what’s at stake. They all trudge back to the couch and sit down, their shoulders sagging in defeat. I really feel for them. I know how hard it must be to stay here when who knows what is happening with Britt.
“Have any of you guys tried to contact Britt telepathically?” I ask as I, too, sit back down, although this time I sit on Nik’s lap so I can look at the four guys. After I get settled, Dev plops down on the floor, leaning against my leg.
Blaine nods, lifting his head to look at me. “Yeah, a few times, but nothing is getting through. We think Malcolm has put a block on her.”
“Okay then, let’s make a plan. We need to figure out where the hell Britt is and get her back before that dickwad tries something stupid.”
Eight
Help from a Friend
Emerald
It’s been just over four hours since Britt was taken right out from under our noses. Now, I’m standing out in the middle of Nik’s backyard in just Talon’s shirt and a pair of borrowed boxers from Nik.
Blaine and Meron briefed me about this tracking spell I’m about to try. They warned that sometimes it can have a pretty caustic effect and that my beast might rise up to fight the magic. My job is to keep her contained until the
spell is done. Then, when they have Britt’s location, I’m to shift and expel the excess energy that will build up over the course of the incantation. That will also satisfy my beast, who will want to escape after being exposed to such raw magic.
Nik and Dev stayed inside the house at my insistence, because I didn’t want them to accidentally get hurt. I would have kept Britt’s guys inside too, if they weren’t all needed for the spell.
Speaking of, my gaze is fixated on Kellan, who is crawling around on the ground, carving a pentagram into the bright green lawn. When he’s finished, he stands up and comes over to me. He places his hands on my shoulders, steering me right into the middle of the pentagram.
Meron explained as we walked out here that since I was the focus of this spell, the link to Britt, I needed to be in the center and the one to cut my pinky. It needed to be in the exact same spot Britt and I made our blood oath as teenagers, not that it was really an oath, per se. We just vowed to always find each other, regardless of how much time had passed.
Whether Britt added a bit of magic to that promise, I don’t know. I’m still having trouble believing there hasn’t been any blood shared between Britt and her husbands. They said they were too closely bonded for their tie to let them track her, but that explanation didn’t sit right with me.
Kellan lets go of my shoulders and pulls a knife from his pocket. He hands it to me, so I’m ready to slice into my finger when the time comes.
I watch the four of them as they move around me, positioning themselves accordingly. They each take a point of the star, leaving the one point at the top free.
They explained that they wanted to cast this spell wordlessly, hoping that my telepathy would make it stronger. I just nodded my agreement, although I was completely clueless. Why would me being telepathic help them with saying the spell? But I just shrugged my shoulders and trusted they knew what they were doing. There was so much I still needed to learn about magic.
